When Orange Countians Loved Mexicans

Am deep in the vaults for an upcoming...something, when I stumbled across an ad in the then-Santa Ana Register for the 1969 Orange County Fair. The theme for that year? "Fiesta of Fun," with its logo a clown wearing a sombrero that read, "¡Vamos Amigos!" (upside-down exclamation point in the original!). The theme was picked to celebrate California's bicentennial in the wasichu world, and the text for the ad boasted that the fair would feature mariachi bands strolling around the fairgrounds to give attendees a feel of "Old Mexico."

Was this the only time in the history of Orange County where Mexicans were encouraged to stroll around and play their music? And that gabachos got the upside-down exclamation point right? And that there wasn't a single Letter to the Editor railing about creeping bilingualism? Oh, for those halcyon dias!

Anyhoo, since I don't have the logo, here's the mariachi classic, "Adelita," as sung by Nat King Cole. That cat could sing:

Gustavo Arellano is the editor of OC Weekly, author of the syndicated column "¡Ask a Mexican!", and Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America. He started at the paper with an angry, fake letter to the editor and went from there—only in Anacrime!